GRAND FORKS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: Boarding numbers down: Some fear situation could worsen with Northwest Airlines' financial troubles.

Byline: Tu-Uyen Tran

Jan. 16--Over the past five years, as air travel boomed throughout North Dakota, it has largely stagnated at Grand Forks International Airport, a situation that some fear could worsen with Northwest Airlines' financial troubles.

Some local leaders have grown increasingly alarmed by this and, one of them, City Council President Hal Gershman has begun exploring the idea of subsidizing air travel using sales tax dollars.

Given that the airport is a major asset for attracting new companies here and that the level of air service suffers when passenger boardings drop, he reasoned that it might be time to use the city's economic development dollars to keep boardings up.

Air service, he said, is "not about the …